Had a small sample of this along with my first order from Den’s, and when I finally ran out of my Gyokuro Kin and Sencha Shin Ryoku, I knew it was finally time to give it a try.

This tea is everything you would expect from it: loud and Grape-y. While a lot of flavored senchas seem to have a misting of fragrance or a handful of dried flowers, the Grape sencha is laden with dried cranberries, grapes, and flower petals; making it a particularly fragrant brew.

My first infusion was a little hot and long (180 for ~2 minutes in my kyusu), and made the somewhat overbearing. The directions say “boiling” for “30 seconds,” but I altered it a bit with slightly cooler water (165*) for 1:25. This made the tea leaves come through a little better, and allowed the “grapiness” to spread across the infusions a little more uniformly.

All in all, a very fruity, fun sencha. I prefer the crispness of the Rose sencha, but this tea certainly makes good on its promise.

I have!! I just got an order of Shincha Houryoku and it is AMAZING four steeps in. Never had a tea hold up so good over multiple steepings. A little paranoid of radiation, but it’s from western Shizuoka, so I think I’ll take my chances for such tasty stuff.

Thanks for the reccomendations — I’d love to hear a couple of your suggestions from Maiko! I’m trying some matcha and Sakura sencha from o-cha soon, so I’ll let you know what I think :)

Cool! Glad you got the Houryoku, it is good stuff. I had it last year too (for the first time). I got the Shincha Kunpu this year, which is also excellent.

Yeah, certainly post your review of the matcha and sakura sencha here on Steepster. I just received my first order from O-cha today, their Kirameki shincha and Kagoshima Yutaka Midori shincha. I’ll review them here as well!

Hmm… well, for Maiko, I’ve only had 3 things thus far (not quite finished with the last one) – Maruyama Sencha (eh, it was OK, many people like it but I don’t personally recommend), Shiawase Cha (pretty unique, fun tea, maybe worth trying if you like Genmaicha and want something a little different), and finally Yamashita’s 5 Gyokuro Sampler (8g of each tea). I highly recommend the sampler, as you can try some awesome teas at a decent price, but I would wait until it’s on sale. I think the normal price is 4,000 JPY (about $40-$45 depending on the rate they use), but I got it on sale for 3,000 JPY (at the time that was equal to $31). It’s expensive still somewhat, but far cheaper than buying any of the upper Gyokuro individually… as I said, I’m not done. I still have 2 left, the best two they carry, Yashiki no Cha and Takumi.

I have!! I just got an order of Shincha Houryoku and it is AMAZING four steeps in. Never had a tea hold up so good over multiple steepings. A little paranoid of radiation, but it’s from western Shizuoka, so I think I’ll take my chances for such tasty stuff.

Thanks for the reccomendations — I’d love to hear a couple of your suggestions from Maiko! I’m trying some matcha and Sakura sencha from o-cha soon, so I’ll let you know what I think :)

Cool! Glad you got the Houryoku, it is good stuff. I had it last year too (for the first time). I got the Shincha Kunpu this year, which is also excellent.

Yeah, certainly post your review of the matcha and sakura sencha here on Steepster. I just received my first order from O-cha today, their Kirameki shincha and Kagoshima Yutaka Midori shincha. I’ll review them here as well!

Hmm… well, for Maiko, I’ve only had 3 things thus far (not quite finished with the last one) – Maruyama Sencha (eh, it was OK, many people like it but I don’t personally recommend), Shiawase Cha (pretty unique, fun tea, maybe worth trying if you like Genmaicha and want something a little different), and finally Yamashita’s 5 Gyokuro Sampler (8g of each tea). I highly recommend the sampler, as you can try some awesome teas at a decent price, but I would wait until it’s on sale. I think the normal price is 4,000 JPY (about $40-$45 depending on the rate they use), but I got it on sale for 3,000 JPY (at the time that was equal to $31). It’s expensive still somewhat, but far cheaper than buying any of the upper Gyokuro individually… as I said, I’m not done. I still have 2 left, the best two they carry, Yashiki no Cha and Takumi.